Chase IHG Premier Credit Card: 170,000 + $100 Dining Reimbursement / 140,000 Welcome Offer

There is now a new in-app offer offering 160,000+10,000, plus a supplementary card, plus 5*$20 in IHG dining reimbursements. You can log in to your own IHG app (your address must be in the U.S.) to see it. Or you can use the following steps to get it

• Log in to your IHG account in a browser (https://www.ihg.com/)
• Then go directly to: this link

This $100 credit is a bit of a catch: it is five $20 reimbursements for dining-related charges, and they must be charged to the room. If you do not use the full $20 in one go, the leftover is gone.

You, as the primary cardmember will receive five Food & Beverage Reward vouchers of up to $20 each, to be redeemed for credit against eligible food and beverage charges on your room bill at participating IHG Hotels & Resorts. Each voucher can only be used once, even if your applicable charges total less than $20. If the full $20 value is not used, the remaining value will be forfeited.

The current welcome bonus is 140,000 IHG points, and points are much more flexible. You can use them at both high-end and budget properties, and they never expire. This card also gives you an annual free-night certificate, so it can be a long-term sock-drawer card! And the award redemption is stay 3 nights, get the 4th night free (stay 4, pay for 3), which is also very nice.

• Chase IHG 140,000-point sign-up bonus

This offer is excellent, so I have added it to the rankings as well!

• Best U.S. Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus Rankings (Personal Cards) [Updated Monthly]

Chase IHG Premier Credit Card Overview

Benefits

• One free night every year, worth keeping long term: This card gives one annual free-night certificate at IHG hotels, valid only for hotels at the 40,000-point level and below (IHG hotels that cannot be booked with it). Although the restriction is tighter, it is still fairly easy to get more than $99 in value out of it, since 40,000-point hotels often cost $150+. The annual free-night certificate can also be used for room types above 40,000 points; just make up the difference with points.
• Fourth night free on award stays: After you hold this card, using IHG points for three consecutive nights gets you the fourth night free. In other words, four nights only cost 75% of the points.
• 20% discount on buying points: When you buy IHG points on the IHG website, you can get a 20% discount. This 20% discount cannot be stacked with IHG point-buy promotions (which are often 80% bonuses). In addition, buying points for Points + Cash bookings can still keep the cost around 0.6c. So this 20% off has basically no meaning. Points-buy discount roundup
• Complimentary IHG Platinum status: Enjoy hotel benefits such as bonus points on stays and room upgrades. Spend $40,000 and get Diamond status. You can also get extra Fuel Rewards discounts when fueling up.
• $50 UA Travel Bank credit: Each year you get $50 in Travel Bank credit, with $25 from January to June and $25 from July to December. The credit expires after 6 months. Link your UA and IHG accounts and this $25 will be issued automatically (link). This credit is automatically used when you book tickets on the UA website, and it will expire if you do not use it within six months.
• Big-spend bonus: Spend $20,000 and get an extra 10,000 points and $100 cash back
• Global Entry/TSA Pre reimbursement of the $100 application fee
• Cell phone insurance: After receiving an email, the card's benefits were changed somewhat. Price Protection and Master Concierge were removed, and the more practical Cell Phone Protection was added, providing up to $800 of coverage for phone loss and damage (the old IHG card offered $600), provided you use this card to pay your phone bill each month. This new benefit is also another reason to keep the card long term.

Drawbacks

• IHG points are worth only 0.6c each, so this card is not suitable as an everyday spending card. Unless you are staying at IHG hotels.

Introduction to IHG Points

• Point value: The average value is about 0.6 c/p, so 100 IHG = $0.6 (Points Value and Analysis). In other words, a hotel night worth $60 would generally require about 10k IHG points.
• How to redeem: You can search and book directly on the IHG.com website. Hotels are divided into 11 award tiers, with redemption rates ranging from 10k to 70k points. Cash + Points redemptions are also available. If you have the IHG Premier credit card, when redeeming points for three consecutive nights, you can get the fourth night free. That means four nights cost only 75% of the points normally required.
• IHG Points Break: Points Break is a member promotion unique to IHG. Each quarter, around 100 hotels are selected from IHG’s 5000 properties worldwide and offered at redemption rates of 5000, 10000, or 15000 points per night. Based on the common valuation of IHG points at 0.6 cents per point, that means you can redeem a free night at these hotels for the equivalent of just $30/$60/$90. Sometimes this is far below the normal cash rate, so popular properties are often snapped up as soon as bookings open. See also: Introduction and Analysis of IHG Points Break
• Point expiration: If there is no activity in your IHG account for 12 months, your points will expire. If you hold a co-branded credit card or have IHG Gold status or higher, your points will not expire.
• My take: If you want to get strong value from IHG points, they are often best used for hotels near major attractions or during special high-demand periods, such as New Year’s Eve in Times Square, New York. IHG’s strength is its broad footprint and large number of properties across the U.S., so it is usually easy to put your points to use. Points Break awards can be as low as 5k points per night, which can be an excellent deal if you can take advantage of them.
• Related credit cards: Chase IHG Premier , Chase IHG Rewards Club (older version)
• Detailed analysis: Introduction to IHG Points and Elite Status

My Take

I believe the main reason people keep the old IHG card as a sock-drawer card is that paying a $49 annual fee in exchange for one free night at any IHG hotel worldwide is simply too good a deal. For example, IHG hotels in Times Square on New Year's Eve often sell for $1,500+, and one free-night certificate can cover that. It is an excellent deal. The new version's free-night certificate now includes additional eligible hotels, which means it can only be used for award nights below 40,000 points. That is a meaningful devaluation. But it is still fairly easy to get back the $99 annual fee in value.

The old 10% points rebate was changed to fourth-night-free (equivalent to a 25% discount), which is a very good deal for people who stay longer. Of course, it is less flexible than a straight 10% points rebate. From a cost perspective, those two discounts are probably about the same for IHG. Earning 10x points on IHG spending could also make a lot of people switch from using a general travel card to using the IHG card, since 10x points is roughly equivalent to 5% cash back. Global Entry reimbursement is already so common that I figure most people already have one.

In addition, the extra 20% discount on buying points still seems to have some play. IHG points are often sold with a 100% bonus, which means the cost of buying points is 0.5 cents per point. If you can combine that with this 20% discount, the effective cost drops to just 0.4 cents per point. If the points you buy happen to be used for a four-night stay and you can use the fourth-night-free benefit, the lodging cost gets even lower. If that really works out, I think many people would be willing to buy points, or even stockpile some IHG points for stays.

[2022.9 update] According to US Credit Card Guide news, some users are now receiving targeted mail offers from IHG that include a separate Invitation Code. According to the terms in the letter, you only need not have received the IHG Premier card sign-up bonus within the past 24 months; there is no mention of the old IHG card. In general, the public application link will not approve old-card holders (after 2022.3 you could no longer get approved for the new card). There are already data points showing that the restriction can be broken, with people getting approved for the new card while still holding the old card.

If you hold the old IHG card

[2022.1 update 2] According to M2M, the Chase IHG co-branded card family is about to introduce a same-brand-one-card rule, meaning that if you hold one of the co-branded cards, you will not be able to apply for the others. This rule officially took effect in March 2022.

[Expired] Fresh DP: readers Jerry and Lizi (2020.1 DP) had already held the old IHG credit card for a year and were also at 9/24 (9 new cards in the past 24 months). Today they applied for this new IHG Premier card and were instantly approved. It seems Chase was still pretty generous: the new card was treated as a new product, and the 5/24 restriction was not added (it probably is now). Personally, I think that although the Free Night benefit has become more limited, it still easily justifies the annual fee. And having the Free Night benefits from both IHG cards together is definitely more practical. There is also a potentially huge loophole redemption: use the old card’s 10% rebate together with the new card’s fourth-night-free benefit, which can create a redemption discount of more than 30%. On top of that, combining it with a 20% discount from buying points on sale can lower hotel costs even further.

Free Night: If you hold both the old card and this new card at the same time, you will get two Free Night certificates.

Fourth-night-free stacking: If you book four consecutive nights with points, the points required for the fourth night will automatically be deducted at checkout. In addition, if you hold the old IHG card, 10% will be returned to you about a month after the points are used. My understanding is that both of these benefits are tied to your account, so it does not matter which credit card you actually use for check-in or payment. If you have both cards, then on every 4-night booking, 13,500 points can get you 20,000 points of value (assuming 5,000 points per night, four nights would normally require 15,000 points with the fourth night free, and then a 10% rebate brings the final cost down to 13,500). That means the points value is effectively boosted by 48%. If you have a large IHG points balance, holding both the old and new IHG cards is a very good choice. And if the hotel you need also happens to be available as a Points Break deal, the value would be incredible.

Application

• The minimum approved credit line on this card is $2,000.
• Since this is a co-branded card with IHG hotels, if you already have an IHG membership number, you can enter it on the application (otherwise one will be assigned automatically).
• If you already hold the old version of the IHG credit card, you may not be able to apply for this new card; some mail offers with a code can bypass this restriction.

Chase Credit Card Application Guide

• Chase application status check link (login required). Or call: 888-338-2586
• The 5/24 rule: if you have opened more than 5 new cards in the past 2 years (including cards from other banks), you will not be approved for a new Chase card
• You can be approved for at most two Chase credit cards within every 30 days
• If you have received the welcome bonus on this card within the past 24 months (48 months for the Sapphire family), your application will be automatically denied
• You can call the reconsideration line (800-453-9719) to expedite card approval or request a review of a denied application.
• Having a Chase Checking account can help with getting approved for a credit card
• More on applying for Chase credit cards

Application Link